Peter Halley’s Prison

“The regimentation of human movement, activity, and perception accompanies the geometric division of space.”

Peter Halley, Wallpaper detail from “Prison”, Dimensions variable, 2012. Courtesy of the artist

Peter Halley’s Prison
By Jenene Nagy

Peter Halley’s new installation, “Prison”, realizes a year of visual art programming that investigates the physical space of a 58-year-old converted bowling alley. The fittings and fixtures of a gaming arena have been removed, transforming the space into a cavernous hall with polished concrete floors and commanding barrel-roof ceilings. Disjecta’s 2011-12 exhibition season showcases the building by more than merely activating it with artworks, but by allowing the work to claim the space as its own.

In his essay The Deployment of the Geometric, Halley writes, “The regimentation of human movement, activity, and perception accompanies the geometric division of space.” In “Prison”, the regiment of the physical relies on the optical relationship one has with the work. The psychology of the geometric and how we calibrate our bodies to move through the physically open yet visually dense space is what is most intriguing.

Here, Halley’s work thrives in the open expanse of the 3000 square foot gallery. With an installation of digital prints wallpapered to the gallery wall, the repeating motif of the forms Halley refers to as “prisons” creates a hypnotizing field of colors and forms that play against each other, generating enough of a retinal buzz to force tunnel vision within the sprawling open space. A solidly painted yellow-hued architectural structure in the space acts as an anchor, grounding us while simultaneously shifting our understanding of scale within this vast field. Here, systems construct an obscure visual space, the perception of such being further complicated by the installation of colored light. The potency of the dominating color in contrast to the vast architecture of the gallery creates a tension between silence and noise that resonates long past our presence in the physical space.